Now, it was in that post where I talked about the exercises where taller guys are at a disadvantage compared to shorter guys in terms of exercise performance. One of those exercises was the bench press exercise. Now, it’s no secret that as a tall guy, you probably build stand out abs, shoulders and lats with ease. But when it comes to building your chest muscles (especially upper chest) you just struggle, and it seems like nothing you do can fix that. The main problem is that with such a large range of motion, your typical chest exercises force your chest fibers to exert more force than that of a shorter person with shorter arms. To make things worse, the increased range of motion will force a lot of the weight onto your front deltoids and of course, your long lanky arms. Yea, it sucks!!!

But there is a way to fix this. And it’s by doing what you’ve constantly been told not to do.

Shorten your range of motion

Doing so will make your rep stroke shorter, as your body is adjacent to the floor. And you no longer have to deal with the long arm/front shoulder issue, where they would usually have to deal with most of the force, because your shoulders are now lower than your chest.

It is indeed only a small tweak. But it has huge benefits, because adding this tweak to your workout will allow you to add more weight to your bench press, which is of course one of the king compound exercises.

I’ll probably follow this up with some more tweaks, since that earlier post gets commented on regularly, so for now, stay tuned.

But today I’m going to share with you what I believe. No, in fact what I KNOW will work best in order to build a rock sold set of 6 or 8 pac abs in record time (3-4 weeks).

But before I do that, you may wonder what was the inspiration behind bringing this topic up again. Well, in recent months, there has been a strong focus on how to build rock solid ‘bulky’ muscle. Without packing on too much fat. One of those methods is to quit focusing on bulk phases.

Why?

More fat build up = harder to lose over time

It’s not healthy

That’s the short version, and there are indeed other methods which I’ve also touched upon briefly in recent posts.

But another factor that inspired this post, is how to ‘get bigger’ without losing your six pack in your earlier leaner days. It’s even become an issue for a natural ecto-mesomorph like myself in the past several ‘guinea pig’ months.

Gaining size.. yes

Maintain my lean muscle mass… yes

Maintain my abs (You know, abs where you don’t have to tense them to prove that you have them)… not quite so easy.

And once again, before I reveal these gut ripping strategies, let’s revise what we already know.

Effectively building muscle = 70% diet 30% gym

You don’t need to perform ONE SINGLE SIT UP in order to build a rock solid set of abs

Yes… it’s still a statement that most people can’t get their heads around. But it’s true. All you need to do is focus on compound exercises that hit all the muscle groups of your body, and a decent amount of 30 minute high intensity cardio sessions. And your abs will come. And while we’re on the topic, let’s start with that.

The ONLY 2 exercises that will build rock solid abs in 3-4 weeks

Now, if you have downloaded the FREE Build a 6 pac from flab to flat ebook, you would already know that there are a vast amount of exercises that you can perform in order to build a rock solid set of abs. But this is Stay-Fit Bug – Innovative ways to build muscle. And we do things the sexy way. A way where you won’t get bored, can have fun with some ‘variety’ and without causing an injury in the process.

#1 Knee lifts

Why knee lifts?

Because this is arguably the best exercise that will help shred away that extra percentage of fat that sits around and under the lower area of your abdomen. In fact, perform 3 x 30 reps every single workout, and I can guarantee that you will see noticeable results a day or 2 after EVERY SINGLE WORKOUT!

It will help you build an 8 pac!

Now, 8 pac building is almost entirely genetic. We all have abs. You just can’t see it because it’s covered in a layer of fat. But having an 8 or 6 pac is all genetics. You either have an 8 pac or just a really toned lower abdomen. Both are a win win in my book. But the knee lift exercise will help you rip up your lower abdomen like no other exercises can. The results come quick, and I can tell you now… after performing 3 x 30 reps of knee lifts, you’ll be hurting like a mother…

Now, having a killer set of abs WITHOUT a killer set of obliques just plain sucks. What you want is the whole package. Why settle for less when you can have the BEST! Performing knee lifts will help you do just that. Having a killer set of obliques gives you the ‘illusion’ of having a high waist and an even higher/rounder more noticeable BUM. Something that interviewee Natalia Muntean has become a master of :). It kind of makes you look like a super human… or even alien ‘like’. And it is that body feature that will make you stand out in a crowd when you strip down this summer. Killer obliques FTW.

How to perform them?

Now… I usually cheat a little with this exercise when I don’t have the desired fitness equipment to perform the knee lift correctly AND effectively. I find a dip bar, hang, rest my forearms on the bars and start knee lifting. However, that’s just me. I’m an animal. It’s in my nature to keep breaking the rules. However, I wouldn’t recommend doing THAT!

The ‘proper’ way to perform knee lifts is to find or buy yourself a pair of these…

And perform them like this….

And of course, the best part is when you alternate and lift your knees to the left or to the right. Those little alternations will indeed play a part into building oblique and lower ab super shreddedness.

Hanging leg raises

This is actually the undisputed king of lower ab exercises. And it knocks me out every time I go to perform them. Yes… I have a little fear for this beastly exercise right here.

How to perform them

Hang from a bar

And with straight legs, bring your feet to the bar.

Return to the starting position

Come to a complete stop, and begin the movement again.

How many reps and sets to perform?

I don’t have to tell you that. Your body will do it for you!

3 Killer gut ripping foods (@70% Diet)

Now, we all know that gym work will be a damn waste of time if you…

1) Eat garbage

2) Don’t follow your strict diet regime at least 80% of the time

But by adding the 3 foods below to your diet, you will indeed aid the 6 pac/oblique building process while at the same time, taking your physique to bulky yet shredded glory.

#1 Almond Milk

Now, before I tell you why almond milk makes the list of foods for a gut ripping diet, while building muscle while at the same time to maintain your lean shredded abs, let’s look at the foods that are essential in the process of building muscle.

Water – You’ll need plenty of this during/post workout and on your off days. Lovely H2O… because that’s what most of your muscles are made up of.

Milk – Milk is the food that ectomorphs can guzzle down by the gallon as a part of the 70% diet strategy to build muscle. (E.g GOMAD diet – Gallon Of Milk A Day). However, milk is high in fat (unless you go half fat post workout) and most people become lactose intolerant on their way to adulthood. Which means they can’t guzzle on the super food known as milk. Bummer!

With that being said, Almond milk makes for a great alternative to whole or even half fat milk on your quest to shredding your outer gut.

Why?

Almond milk is just made of water (Which you now know is essential) and plain old almonds (Which is of course a golden oldie food source for helping to keep fat at bay)

It has less fat than milk, which of course helps with it’s low insulin spiking ability

Following a GOMAD diet or guzzling stacks of milk will make most people bloat (uuuurgghh). Almond milk won’t do that

No indigestion after effects

Jamie Oliver said ‘You should not only eat your food… you should taste it too’. Almond milk scores pretty high on that statement

But Shaun…

– Almond milk has stacks of sugar… like 8 grams. What’s the difference? The effects will be the same… no?

– Milk is like… super carbs, super protein. Almond milk has just 1 gram per serving of protein. How am I going to build muscle with that? huh?

Both statements are true. And my reply to those queries would be…

– Almond milk has stacks of sugar… like 8 grams. What’s the difference? The effects will be the same… no?(Just buy the unsweetened kind. It will taste more or less the same when eaten with foods such as cereal)

– Milk is like… super carbs, super protein. Almond milk has just 1 gram per serving. How am I going to build muscle with that? huh? (Well, if you have read the guide to necessary supplementation ebook, you would have come across the hose vs faucet concept. Which basically shows the real world representation of the digestion process of slow vs fast absorbing carbs/ protein. In regards to building muscle, the shred with bulk way, you will need to eat the right carbs/ protein food sources at the correct time for maximum results. Almond milk may be a little low on the protein side yes. All you have to do to counter that is add other fast digesting ‘free form’ protein sources while drinking it. With the obvious solution being Whey Protein – Problem solved)

Now let’s role on to super food #2

#2 Ezekial 4:9 Sprouted Grain bread

If we go back to the best foods for abs post, all those eon’s ago, you would have seen that eating whole foods made the list. That still remains. But building muscle is all about protein consumption. And Ezekial bread steps up as the winner as food #2 to help rip the outer gut.